Through the thick cigarette smoke, the creaking of wooden planks can be heard.
It seemed as though the sound was made by ferries swaying back and forth along the river waves.
On the dock of Soara, inside a building that seemed entwined as if sewn together with thread.
The two individuals stood facing each other, but nothing was said for a long time, and the only sounds that could be heard were the sound of cigarettes being lit and the gulp of alcohol passing down the throat.
"I feel like time passes too quickly with you in front of me like this."
The old man spoke only after finishing a bottle of liquor and smiled as he tossed the finished cigarette into the ashtray.
His yellowed and ugly teeth seemed threatening, but Vlad, who was seated across from him, didn't even flinch.
"In fact, it's not necessary for you to know, but originally I also wanted to bring you along. Jorge, that guy, may be a bit soft, but still, you know."
"…"
The old man's eyes seemed weak as he thought of the past.
Though he had been waiting for a while and what was being said now wasn't the main topic, Vlad still decided to wait.
As someone born and raised in the alleys, he wanted to show some courtesy to my boss, Captain Hoover.
"I heard Marcella is retiring too?"
"It won't be a full retirement. She's not as old as the boss."
"Haha! Yes. If I were Marcella's age, I'd still be in my prime."
If he were an ordinary alley boy, his head would have been cut off with a sharpened hook with the words he just spoke.
However, the person paying attention now was Hoover, the boss, and though Vlad was a guest, he dominated his space.
"I'm grateful to the boss. For looking after the cripple Harven."
"That's because he was smart."
"Even though you put it in a corner."
"…"
As he listened to Vlad's words, whose intentions he could not guess, Hoover reopened the bottle with the hook in his left hand.
Truly the best talent born in the alleys of Soara.
Vlad had become too heavy and hard to float on his own.
"It's not an excuse, but I had no other place to use him apart from that."
"I know. I understand."
There used to be five bosses in the back alley.
And the knight seated across lost one boss and killed two bosses.
Vlad of Soara was a knight whom not even shining gold coins or indulgences granted by God could stop, and Hoover decided not to forget that fact.
"I want to retire. Comfortable and secure."
And so I decided to retire.
Before being eaten or killed by his hands.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because if it's not you, there's no one else who can do it."
The alley's story is as complex and ever-changing as the people who live there.
However, if you look at it from afar, it seems to function according to a law, which is the law of the strongest.
"I know the young mayor of Soara is targeting me. Because he wants to control everything in this city."
There are things you can see because you're old.
The old captain had been sailing the seas for a long time and knew full well that he had to furl the sails and hold his breath in the midst of a raging storm.
"Please tell him This old man wants to retire."
"…You'll have to let go of many things. You'll have to compensate Mr. Joseph for what he has prepared."
It was an offer that didn't particularly appeal to him, but Vlad thought of the face of the person who had introduced him here and decided to show as much sincerity as possible.
In any case, he had been able to endure tough times thanks to this person, so it was a way to repay.
"…Of course. I'll prepare so you won't be disappointed."
After hearing Vlad's response, Hoover didn't show it, but his heart sank greatly.
As expected, I was being targeted.
If I had been a little late, they would have hanged me.
"Please. I won't let you regret it."
"I'll tell you something."
There wasn't a definitive answer, but that would be enough.
The man who was now rising was of noble blood, Joseph's confidant, and a symbol of Soara.
"Wait a second."
"…?"
Vlad, holding the doorknob to leave, suddenly grabbed a bottle of liquor that flew past him.
It was a brown liquor with an unpleasant sheen.
"What's this?"
"It's my masterpiece."
Captain Hoover, who had just taken out a cigarette, looked at Vlad with a squinted eye.
"It's a drink with a name. My name is Captain Q. Actually, I was thinking of opening a brewery as a hobby after retiring."
After hearing Hoover's words, Vlad only then remembered where he had seen the alcohol he was holding.
In the days when there was nothing to drink and die for, it was literally the drink that almost killed me.
"…Don't dream of the distillery."
Vlad still didn't remember well what happened that night.
***
"What happened?"
"Take this."
Vlad, who left the dock after being seen off by his gang members, saw Harven waiting for him there and quickly threw him a bottle of alcohol.
With a tired expression, as if he had been holding a bottle of poison all this time.
"What's this?"
"What is it? That damn drink."
"No, was the old man still making this?"
Harven also accepted the bottle, unable to hide his surprised expression.
He was somewhat restless and seemed to want to throw the bottle away right now.
"Hire Hoover. Let him take care of whatever needs to be taken care of."
"Eh? What?"
"If you want to save that person, that's how it has to be."
Vlad spoke with indifference and Harven responded as if he didn't know, but the two understood each other.
It might not have been as bad as Vlad and Jorge, but Harven and Hoover were on the same fence, and the men in the back alleys were sensitive to such things.
Just as Harven introduced Vlad to Hoover.
"He said he was a person who had been at sea when he was young and told me to learn everything from navigation to smuggling routes. Nowadays Bayezid is very interested in the sea."
"Shall I put it in an easy way for you? That's the basis of his business."
"If he doesn't want to die, I'll let him know."
Whether to spit him out alive or kill him and take him away, everything related to Hoover depended on Joseph to decide anyway.
However, even if you're a boss in an alley, if you show that there's something useful to save your life, they won't necessarily take your life.
"…And for the time being, don't do anything that could get you caught."
"If."
Harven felt the sudden change in Vlad's mood and nodded, wiping away his smile.
"It's time to leave once and for all. Now's the time."
"Yes. Take care of the kids."
Just as the old captain saw the storm approaching from afar, Harven could also feel the meaning behind Vlad's words as they passed.
As Soara's market also provoked its own changes, it was obvious that even greater changes would begin now that the Northern Union and the Orthodox Church had appeared.
"Shelter."
"Eh?"
At the alley's fork.
Vlad heads to the town hall and Harven heads to the rose's smile, so they must part ways.
"This is an opportunity. It's here now."
"…"
Though Vlad didn't say much, Harven could tell what he was trying to say.
It's the same for everyone, but for the alley kids, opportunity was like a dream and they worked tirelessly to seize it.
And now before the two of them stood Soara, who was about to change.
"Let's do our best."
"Yes."
You take the main street, I'll take the back alley.
Though their paths were different, their goals were the same.
That's probably the story of those days when we wrapped ourselves in a single blanket, promising to tell it someday.
***
Neigh-
Neigh-
A stable located within the town hall of Soara.
It was a place filled with the neighing of horses, but the spot where the black horse and the green-haired girl stood was extremely quiet.
"You're also avoiding everyone."
Neigh-
Noir made a sound as if responding to Charlotte's words, but the reality was completely different.
Noir, with his damn personality, was only warning the surrounding horses not to approach him.
"Well, yes. I know that feeling too."
However, the young Charlotte still didn't know Noir's nature and felt sympathy for the black horse as she watched him alone without anyone around.
Although Noir was famous for rejecting his caretakers, he was particularly indulgent with Charlotte, and his behavior was similar to what he showed to Zemina.
Although it might not be her favorite red color, could it be because Charlotte's hair color reminded him of the grasslands of his hometown?
"It's all because of that eye."
Charlotte, who was hugging Noir's neck, began to narrow her eyes as she remembered someone.
A knight whose personality is as bad as his appearance.
He was also the one who knocked Vlad on the head and squeezed his ankles as soon as he saw him teach.
"If it weren't for him, I would have been learning something by now."
I don't know if it was because she couldn't learn to handle the sword or because she couldn't be with Vlad, but Charlotte's anger was directed solely at Jager.
A knight who scolded Vlad for teaching a novice.
If it weren't for him, she could have been swinging a wooden sword with Vlad right now.
"I'm really unlucky."
Although she was in an unfamiliar place like a stranger, she couldn't say anything, but if this place had been Ravnoma Mansion, she would definitely have raised her voice once.
Charlotte was very angry and felt unfair.
"Hey hey hey! Boy and horses!"
"Huh?"
Then Charlotte heard someone shout.
It was very sudden, and it was also a sound that she couldn't help but be surprised by.
"Me?"
"Yes, you! Little boy over there!"
Charlotte raised her finger and pointed to herself just in case, but the man's expression only grew grimmer as he saw her.
"Damn it! Don't you realize how important that is? Get out right now!"
"Huh? What?"
Of course, in the days when they were disguised as slaves, they could endure the same treatment as now, but this was Soara, and Charlotte was Ravnoma, a noble.
As a guest, Charlotte had no grounds to be treated like this.
"What kind of bastard are you? Huh? Damn it! Get out, man!"
However, the man who was scolding her now also had a good reason to do so.
"Someone with no brains in his head is trying to take someone else's place."
"...Is this your seat?"
"Hey, look at how this guy talks to an adult. He's got the nerve of someone who's barely matured, just like always."
Anyone would behave like this if their hard-earned position were threatened.
Until now, his job had always been to take care of Vlad's horse, Noir.
"Hmph. Still, he looks like a real man, even wearing a wooden sword at his waist. What about you, are you a squire or something?"
"Yes, I'm a squire! If you learn swordplay from a knight, that makes you a squire!"
However, Charlotte, who was already extremely venomous, began to lash out at the long-chinned man scolding her regardless of context.
As the man had just said, Charlotte Ravnoma was a true yellow killer who had already killed people.
"I'm the squire of Knight Vlad! I learn sword skills from him every day!"
"What?"
Of course, she wasn't a squire and had never properly learned how to use a sword, but Charlotte, overcome by evil, began to grab any horse and serve it.
However, the man's face began to turn white, as if those words were enough to hit.
"Why are you Vlad's squire?"
A man in tattered clothes, who must have been through many hardships.
The hand he held against his chest trembled slightly as if feeling aggrieved.
"I'm Vlad's squire, man!"
A guide, a stable caretaker, a squire of Vlad, and a swindler.
Goethe has returned.
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